


let me go

by writerlily



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: F/M, Post S3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 14:01:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8404384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerlily/pseuds/writerlily
Summary: Kate didn't think she would simply "hang around" after her death. She believed in Heaven and Hell and those were the only two choices for her. She was wrong.





	

Unfinished business. 

That's what certain people say about spirits that still linger in the physical world. 

Their souls can't move on until they finish what they were intended to do. 

Kate didn't think she would simply "hang around" after her death. She believed in Heaven and Hell and those were the only two choices for her. 

She was wrong. 

-

She opens her eyes and finds herself in a motel room. The air is stale, like a window hasn't been open in a very long time. There's a thin layer of dust on the coffee table and the bed has an ugly green comforter on top. 

She knows immediately that she isn't supposed to be here. 

She knows what happened to her. 

She can still feel the slashes against her wrists, as if she were bleeding right then and there onto the carpet. But when she presses a hand to each wrist, she's not hurt. 

Kate can still see the moments leading up to her death. The hard thud of her body to a cold floor. The feeling of a large calloused hand on her cheek. 

She walks to the window and pushes aside the curtain. There's a beat up black car parked outside and she suddenly has flashbacks. 

Memories of motel rooms and stolen cars and cheap food. The distinct scent of beer and Seth and it's like she's back to being on the road with him all those months ago. 

But she's not. 

She's dead and she isn't supposed to be here. 

-

She's sitting on the edge of the bed when the door begins to unlock. Her spine straightens and she rubs her palms against her legs and she's just noticing that she's in a dress that she remembers from a lifetime ago. 

Kate's mother had sewn it for her. It was a simple white dress with thin straps and tiny daisies stitched across the chest. It used to be Kate's favorite dress and she was sad when she thought she had lost it forever. 

The door swings open and she's not at all surprised by who walks in. 

-

He looks tired. 

Seth is moving around the room, doing his usual routine of checking each window and the bathtub before placing his guns down on the coffee table by the wall. 

He doesn't notice her at all. Not even when she says his name, or tries touching him. Not even when she follows ridiculously close to him, close enough for her to smell him. 

He shrugs off his black jacket and discards it in a corner of the room before walking to the bathroom to splash cold water over his face. 

The last time she saw Seth, he had a full beard and looked healthy. Clean, even. Now he looks rough around the edges again and immediately her mind jumps to the worst. 

But her worries are laid to rest when the only things that come out of his pockets are a crumpled lotto ticket and a pack of gum. 

Not a needle and a lighter. 

-

He's laying in bed playing with his gun as she sits across from him on the worn out brown sofa. She studies him from her spot. 

He was always more vulnerable alone. 

She can see the sadness wrapped around him like a cocoon. It's in the way his shoulders hang low and the way his eyes stare off at the wall for moments at a time. 

She wishes she could talk to him; she would push his buttons every way she knew how then force him to help her, except it wouldn't really be forcing. 

She knows that he would do anything for her. 

Kate looks away from him, thinking that it's too late for that now. 

-

"I love you. I'm sorry."

He had said those words to her before darkness and death swallowed the rest of her light. 

Kate had found it funny at the time. 

It only made sense that their ending would be tragic. 

-

She loved him too. 

In her own little way. 

-

Kate watches him sleep that night. It's not as if she needs the shut eye and there's nothing else she can do at this point but to wait. 

She watches the rise and fall of his broad chest. She stares at the cupid's bow of his lips and runs a finger down the slope of his nose. His eyelashes have always been long, something that she envied when she was alive. They fan out across the tops of his cheeks. 

She lays in the empty space next to him. It's on the side that she would sleep on whenever they shared a bed during their time together. He always liked being by the door and she never protested because it was warmer by the wall anyway. 

-

Sometime during the night he mumbles her name and she places a hand to his cheek. The same way he did to her before she died. 

"I'm right here," she whispers sadly. "Just open your eyes Seth." 

And he does. 

-

Seth doesn't believe she's real. 

He points his gun at her; even brings it directly to her temple, but she doesn't waver. 

"Do it," she puts her own hand over his on the trigger. He flinches at her touch and his eyes squint in disbelief. "I'm already dead anyway."

He storms out of the room after that, but she's following him to his car. Even when he's yelling at her to leave him alone. 

He drives off with her in the passenger seat. 

-

No one else can see her. They find that out pretty quickly when he starts yelling at her to stop following him and everyone at the gas station stares at him like he's crazy. 

Which he's starting to believe he is.

-

"This doesn't make any sense."

"I know." 

"Someone is fucking with me."

"I don't think it's that, Seth."

He stares at her a beat too long when she says his name, cusses under his breath, and sighs. 

"Get in the car."

-

He drives back to the lot of the motel and exits the car. She follows after him, right on his heels, and she doesn't mean to be so glued next to him. She just can't help it. She's just as mystified by this whole thing as he is.

A small part of her also just wants to be closer to him, even if their proximity makes his shoulders tense and his jaw twitch. 

-

"Where's Scott?"

"With Richard," he says flatly and rubs a hand across his jaw. "They're still working together."

Kate looks down at her hands. They're free of the tiny scrapes and scars that she used to have. She's happy that Scott is okay and she nods, thinking that he made a good choice to stick with Richard. 

"You didn't want to stay with them?" She asks lightly, knowing not to push too much. 

"I still talk to them regularly but... I didn't have a place there anymore," he sighs tiredly and sits at the edge of the bed. He rests his elbows on his knees and holds his chin between his hands. Seth lifts his eyes up to really look at her. "What are you doing here, princess?"

Princess. 

She looks away.

"I'm just as confused as you are, but... there must be a reason why I'm here with you," she says meaningfully. "Not with Scott, or anyone else. You."

Seth looks away, rubs a hand on the back of his neck. He looks uncomfortable and she tilts her head at him. 

"I can't lie and say that I haven't... haven't missed you," he says slowly, like he's trying to piece together the right words to convey his feelings. "You're dead. You've been gone, Kate. And I've been... been here..."

Alone.

He trails off quietly. Her lip wobbles and she has to rub her hands against her thighs to keep her from crying. 

"Did you do something?" She asks. "To bring me back to you?"

Seth gives her a deadpan look. 

"I'm not stupid enough to defy the laws of nature like that, thank you very much," he snaps at her as if he were truly offended by her question and it makes her forget about crying. 

She laughs. 

-

They stop questioning things the fourth night that they spend in the motel together. Which is stupid and careless, but in that space of time, they're back together. 

It's more than either of them could have hoped for.

He stays on his side of the bed and she stays on hers. Every morning he looks surprised and relieved to see her still there. And every night he looks to scared to close his eyes in fear that she might be gone when he wakes.

-

They lay on their sides facing each other, staring at each other. 

"You have a new wrinkle," Kate says and rubs her thumb across the crease in his skin on his forehead. He gives her an unimpressed look, but doesn't bat her hand away. 

"No I don't," he glares at her and when she laughs his face does that thing again. 

Where it goes soft and sad, even though it makes the corners of his lips tilt up in the slightest way. Something heavy settles across her chest. 

"You look the same," he says just as quietly. He tentatively brings a hand up to her face, but he pauses and she knows that he must be thinking of when she died. 

He brings his hand down, but she holds it in hers anyway. 

-

"I'm stuck here," she says sometime to Seth later in the week. 

He's eating a burger and fries and he grumbles a "what" through a mouthful of food at her. 

"Spirits sometimes get stuck here on earth when they have unfinished business," she sucks on her bottom lip. Seth is quiet, too busy chewing his food. "Don't you see? You're my unfinished business. It makes sense why I'm here with you and no one else."

"Well aren't I lucky," Seth says after a swallow of food. "That I get to be stuck with you."

He doesn't sound upset with that at all.

-

Days pass then weeks and before Kate knows it, it's been a few months. 

A few months of living in a bubble with Seth; sleeping in the same bed, watching crappy cable television, going on long car rides, playing cards. 

It's like the world has been condensed into their small motel room and in time, they stop questioning her being there. 

-

"Do you think it would have been this simple with us if I hadn't died?"

"I hate playing what-if. Nothing good comes out of it."

"I don't think it would have."

"Would've what?"

"Been easy between us."

"Why do you say that?"

"You're you."

"Thanks."

"Do you really believe we would have a happy ending?"

"Who's to say that this isn't it?"

"Who's to say that it is?"

-

They haven't left the motel room in quite some time. 

Seth's phone has eight missed calls from both Richard and Scott, but he doesn't return any of them. 

-

There's a knock on the door on a Wednesday morning. 

Seth instantly jumps to his feet with his gun ready and pointing at the door. 

"Open up you prick."

Kate and Seth both look at each other. He sighs and lowers his hand. 

Richard and Scott are both standing outside. 

-

"We thought you were dead," Richard says as he walks around the room. His eyes linger on the game of cards on the table. 

"We called you like a thousand times," Scott crosses his arms. 

Seth rolls his eyes. "Don't be so fucking dramatic."

"You need to get out of here," Richard pockets his hands and moves between Scott and Seth to face his brother. "You can't keep locking yourself up."

Seth glances at Kate sitting in the corner of the room, watching him. Richard follows his line of vision and frowns. 

"I'm not dead, you only called me fourteen times, and I'm not leaving," Seth straightens his spine. "I'm fine."

"Scott, leave the room," Richard says without breaking eye contact with Seth. Scott doesn't question the command, knowing that this is probably something between the two brothers, and goes outside. Richard moves towards where Kate is. "Who were you looking at just now?" 

"No one," Seth says a little too fast and steps between Kate and Richard. He feels her come up behind him to place her hand on his shoulder.

Realization creeps into Richard's eyes and he looks at Seth sadly. 

"Don't look at me like that," Seth snaps at his brother. He hates the pity in Richard's eyes. 

"You need to let her go," Richard says gently. "Whatever is happening in this room, isn't real. She's dead."

Seth shakes his head. "Mind your own fucking business."

"He's right Seth," Kate stands besides Richard and slips her hand into Seth's. He look up at her and she tries not to look too sad as she smiles at him. "This wasn't supposed to last forever."

Seth's jaw clenches and he hates how this whole ordeal is like a fucking intervention. 

"Unfinished business," he says.

-

They both sit down on their bed when Richard leaves the room. 

"I guess it's time," her shoulder brushes against Seth's and he closes his eyes. 

"I'm not ready," he shakes his head like a child. "I can't lose you a third time."

"You haven't lost me at all," she takes his hand in hers, tries to keep the tears at bay, but her voice cracks anyway. "I know you love me... and I love you," his head whips up to look at her. "Now you know. Now you can move on."

The heartbreak and elation is written all over his face. He leans towards her, not at all caring that his eyes are red, and presses his forehead against hers. 

"You need to let me go, Seth," she whispers and he ignores the way her voice is fainting. He ignores the fact that he feels her less and less against him. "You need to let me go."

"Happy ending," he says sarcastically and she lets out a shaky laugh. He tries to memorize the way her warm breath feels against his cheeks. 

Her lips curve at his words. "Who's to say that this isn't it?" 

-

She's gone when he opens his eyes and he sits there and waits and waits for that feeling of emptiness to take over him, but it doesn't. 

-

"I love you. I'm sorry."

"I forgive you. I always did."

**Author's Note:**

> sigh. feelings. thanks for reading! let me know what you thought :)


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